Black IPA/Cascadian Dark Ale recipe suggestions???

[NordeastBrewer77]

Looking for some critique and input on a BIPA/CDA recipe. Here's my idea:

6.8# alexanders sun country pale LME
1# muntons extra light DME
.9# crystal malt 10L
.7# carafa II
.6# special roast

1.31 oz. Yakima magnum pellets (13.1%aa) (60 min)
.82 oz. Amarillo pellets (7.2%aa)(30 min)
.5 oz. Nugget pellets (12.2%aa)(5 min)
.62 oz. Millenium pellets (15%aa)(5 min)
.9 oz. Columbus pellets (14.4%aa)(2 min)
.3 oz. Columbus Pellets (dry hop 7 days)
.4 oz. Amarillo pellets (dry hop 7 days)

Wyeast 1000 Headwaters Ale (2 packages, yeast starter in boil)

Used brew calc to figure out #'s and it sounds good to me. Any suggestions??

 

[heferly]

i'd just make sure you get carafa special...dehusked, so less bitter (unless you're going for a roastier beer). i only used 4 oz carafa special III, and didn't get black enough

not enough experience to comment on the rest

good luck!

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Yeah, I want most of the bitterness to come from the magnum and early Amarillo hops. A little bit roasty isn't bad, but nothing to take away from pale ale flavor and feel.

 

[alexdagrate]

I use at least a pound of debittered black malt from brewcraft and I steep it separately from my other speciality grains. I usually steep the black malt at 150 for only 15-20 min.

I suggest using at least 2 ounces of dry hops.

I really like the hop varieties you've selected.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Yeah, I was thinkin of increasing the 2 min and dry hop addition, I think the Columbus and Amarillo should work great together.
My first thought was de-bittered black, but everything I read says carafa is the signature of the style? Would the debittered black work well here?

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Bump

 

[azingsheim]

I made the Brewing Tv. "Little Bear Cascadian Dark" and it was great. I used an extra ounce of cascade dry hops though, and might use more next time.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Just brewed my above listed recipe tonight with a slight tweaking of the hop bill and wyeast 1056 because my LHBS Midwest supply was out of their house strain. Wort tasted as I expected. O. G. is 1.062. Can't wait til this guys done, I put alot into this recipe.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Update: The beers in the keg and carbed! Tried a pint yesterday and it's delicious! It's a tad more roasty than I would've liked in a CDA, but it's my first try at the style, so a couple tweaks are needed. I was thinking of backing off the carafa II to about a half pound and adding around a quarter pound of debittered black in place of the missing carafa. I'm thinking this will eliminate some of the roasty flavor and make the beer a touch darker.
The hops stand up great to the malt, so I'm gonna leave them as is and see if backing off the carafa II makes them shine.
I have to drink on this batch some more and run my ideas thru the computer, but I think this is a good basis for a nice CDA recipe.

 

[jsweet]

Got a picture? I'm curious how dark it came out.

I'm very mixed on the whole black IPA fad. The first I heard of it, I was really excited, and the first one I tried was great. The second one I tried was a great disappointment, especially since that brewery's IPA is one of my favorites. I've had a couple more since, and I'm still not sure if I think it's an awesome idea, or just a silly gimmick....

Of course, I'll probably try brewing one at some point either way

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Got a picture? I'm curious how dark it came out.

I'm very mixed on the whole black IPA fad. The first I heard of it, I was really excited, and the first one I tried was great. The second one I tried was a great disappointment, especially since that brewery's IPA is one of my favorites. I've had a couple more since, and I'm still not sure if I think it's an awesome idea, or just a silly gimmick....

Of course, I'll probably try brewing one at some point either way

I can't post pics from my iPhone, but I'll try'n get one up here later when I'm home. The beer is very dark brown almost black in a pint. Hold it up to the light, it's a very dark blood red where the light comes thru the side of the glass. Frothy tannish head. I'll get a pic up!
I know whatcha mean about cda's. Some are great, like widmers pitch black and stones sublimely self righteous. Others like 21st amendments back in black, way too roasty. Which sucks cuz I love their IPA and thought their BIPA would be better. Another great example is lakefronts IBA. But so far as what I've tried, stone and widmer make the best ones. My malt bill for this recipe is based on a widmer pitch black clone and the hops are geared more towards something stone might do.

 

[wegchef]

I brewed the wit-10 clone out of the spring issue of BYO. Came out pretty well and quite tasty. Check their website if you have issues finding the recipe let me know I can post it for you

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I brewed the wit-10 clone out of the spring issue of BYO. Came out pretty well and quite tasty. Check their website if you have issues finding the recipe let me know I can post it for you

I used that recipe for as the basis for my grain bill. I wanted a more aggressively hopped beer, like stones sublimely self-righteous (11th ann'y) so I used different hops than the w-10, but calculated the AAU's to be the same as w-10.
This was my first try brewing the style, and I think I came pretty close to what I was looking for. The aroma is amazingly citrus. The flavor is great, as soon as you might think the dark malt is gonna make itself known, the hops come through and put that idea to rest.
:rockin: